Poll: Record low are 'pro-choice'

The percentage of Americans who identify themselves as “pro-choice” is at the lowest point ever measured by Gallup, according to a new survey released Wednesday.

A record-low 41 percent now identify themselves as “pro-choice,” down from 47 percent last July and 1 percentage point down from the previous record low of 42 percent, set in May 2009. As recently as 2006, 51 percent of Americans described themselves as “pro-choice.”

Text Size

“Gallup began asking Americans to define themselves as pro-choice or pro-life on abortion in 1995, and since then, identification with the labels has shifted from a wide lead for the pro-choice position in the mid-1990s, to a generally narrower lead for “pro-choice” — from 1998 through 2008 — to a close division between the two positions since 2009,” explains the polling firm.

“Pro-life” identification is up among all three U.S. political affiliations: 72 percent of Republicans are “pro-life,” up from 68 percent last year; 47 percent of independents are, compared with 41 percent last year; and 34 percent of Democrats are, compared with 27 percent last year.

In terms of morality, a slight majority — 51 percent — of Americans consider abortion morally wrong, while 38 percent say that it is morally acceptable — virtually unchanged to views on the matter in May 2011.

Views on legality are slightly different: 72 percent of Americans believe that abortion should be legal; 52 percent believe it should be legal under certain circumstances; and 20 percent believe it should be legal under all circumstances. A quarter of the American population believes abortion should be illegal in all circumstances.

The Gallup Poll was conducted May 3-6 with a sample of 1,024 adults and a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Readers' Comments (104)

This poll wouldn't happen to have a heavily republican/conservative bias compared to most other polls asking about abortion now would it?

Remember a few years ago when a similar poll made headlines, but if you read deeper you found out the percentage of voters that were republican in that poll were 10 points higher then the national average. You also found out that going deeper, and asking questions about the right to get abortions in cases like rape, or very early in pregnancy had strong majorities supporting it, over 75%,which was quite remarkably close to the normal numbers those questions get for the heavy republican sampling bias.

Time for the pro-abortion bigots to slink back to their caves. In a few years, these Neanderthals will be so embarrassed about their hatred of prenatal infants that they'll resort to white hoods to hide their identities. LOL.

every one of the pro-lifers would run to the abortion clinic if their daughter or wife was raped. that's all you need to know about these hypocrites. these are the same people on the far right that value life so much that they have no problem sending our young men and women to war. if you're pro-life, at least be consistent.

Then, when the substantive question is asked 72% say that abortion should be legal in some or all circumstances. So 72% are actually pro-choice and that should be the headline.

I don't believe you or shadow liberal above thoroughly read the article.

72 percent of Americans believe that abortion should be legal under certain circumstances (52 percent) or under all circumstances (20 percent). A quarter of the American population believes abortion should be illegal in all circumstances.

Legal in all circumstances=20%

Illegal in all circumstances=25%

That leaves a good portion of the population saying it should be illegal in some cases.

72% is the TOTAL who think that is should be legal in some or all situations. By the same token, 77% think it should be illegal in some or all cases. Only 20% think it should be legal in ALL circumstances. The 52% are going to include those who think that rape, incest, or to protect the life of the mother is a valid reason to abort the child. Yes, there are pro-life people who would have an abortion if rape was involved. There is an attachment between mother and child, and many women would not want that attachment as a further reminder of what happened, even if the child is given up for adoption--the mother still knows she has a child somewhere. Either way, in the case of rape, having or aborting the child is not an easy decision. I know because it happened in my family.

Gallup, arguably the pollster of choice for the Democrat party just happens to take an abortion poll at a time when the economy is way more important an issue? Would it be at all possible that the current Admin is desperately trying to find wedge issues to talk about that can deflect the conversation away from what it should be, that being Obama's record? Of course that is what it is about. Dredge up the old canards and manipulate the polls to cause fear that social issues will rule the discussion in November.

Abortion, while a very important social issue is not what this election cycle should be about. The electorate needs to focus on the direction that the country is headed economically and the development of jobs and careers for taxpayers. We should remember just how ineffective the current administration has been. How ineffective a Democrat controlled Congress from 2006 to 2010 was, and why it is so very important to get business savvy professionals involved in turning this economy around.

Let's not forget the margin of error, here. Or the fact that most Americans are unbelievably uninformed about abortion, and that a true majority of them really just don't know the facts. If these respondents were made to take an abortion literacy test, most of them would fail miserably. What do you expect though, when the anti-choice movement just floods this country with blatant lies and misinformation.

Medical advances continue to move the age of viability down ever closer to the point of conception, undermining the argument that the fetus is "mere tissue". This is clear to everyone because, at the same time we are also seeing medical advances extending life at the other extreme: e.g. highly successful heart surgery for people in their late 80's and early 90's.

When great granda hugs you with new life and vigor, you can't help but think of the other extreme.

When DOES legal protection of life begin under the constitution? ...the practical answer shifts with the advance of medical science, but clearly does not shift to BEFORE conception (fertilization of the egg and the generation of a new, unique DNA.)

Between conception and birth, abortion will always be legal under the "self defense" argument: we always have the right to protect ourselves from imminent death. But increasingly science can save both mother and child is situations where life is threated by disease or accident.

So we are left with the reality that, increasingly, abortion is a "choice" to end a viable, unique, human life. We are left with fewer and fewer rationalizations.

So the changes in opinion reflected in this poll is not due to one ideology beating out another in the marketplace of ideas, but almost completely due to increased understanding of medical reality.

P.S. I admit I am biased: I am the father of 4 adopted children who have made me the proud grandfather of 5 loving grandkids. I highly recommend society put far more priority on promoting adoption as the solution to unwanted pregnancy, and even more priority on developing the discipline and love for life among our children that is the best answer of all to unwanted pregnancies!